This invention relates generally to cellular phones and more particularly to various features of a cellular radio telephone antenna system.
A cellular telephone antenna must be coupled to electrical components on the phone's printed circuit board (PCB). During assembly and repair, the PCB might need to be detached from the rest of the cellular telephone, including the antenna. Thus, the physical coupling between the antenna and PCB must be detachable while at the same time providing a secure electrical connection. Present antenna connectors are bulky and difficult to assemble.
Cellular phones typically include circuitry that allow data transmission and reception of radio frequency signals from either an internally connected antenna or from an external communication source. The external source is either a relay system, such as an external antenna, that simply forwards the cellular radio signals to and from a cellular base station.
The internal conductors that connect the external source to the phone circuitry are generally routed inside the phone casing along the entire length of the phone. Long conductors are used so that the conductor length is equal to the wave length (.lambda.) of the transmitted radio frequency signals. Thus, when the external source is disconnected, the conductor appears as an open circuit. However, long conductors are expensive and consume the limited space in the cellular phone case.
Accordingly, a need remains for an inexpensive and easy to assemble antenna system that uses minimal space in a portable cellular telephone handset.